Hanging out at Lake Como

We rented a house in Colico, near the very top tip of Lake Como, and made a temporary home. It was a lovely spot, and a great place to holiday with a toddler - low key, with all the necessities like supermarkets and playgrounds, but still plenty of dramatic scenery for our eyes to feast on.

The two snaps above were taken from the front porch of our holiday house.  The mountains and snow were amazing to our Western Australian-ised eyes.  Not really what first comes to mind when you think of Italy, is it?

The holiday house interior: not flash, but very comfortable and cosy.  And effortlessly functional.  How do the Italians do it?

Local fruit and veggies:

We shopped well, ate well, rested and played at the "beach" at the edge of the lake.

We probably wouldn't have thought to come and visit by ourselves, without the drawcard of good friends living nearby.  And I wouldn't have imagined it could be so pleasant to stay in one comfy spot rather than zooming all over the countryside trying to see all the tourist sites (for example, we didn't go to Rome.  Who flies all the way from Perth to Italy and doesn't go to Rome? People who want an excuse to come back again, I suppose!)

Back in my younger travelling days, "pleasant" was not a state one aimed for (more "mind-blown!" "amazed!" or "drunk!").  But we're solid mid-thirties with a toddler.  It's different these days.

From Zurich

Tim loved our holiday to Switzerland and Italy.  There were so many, many forms of transport to observe.

From our hotel room in Zurich he could see trams, colourful tourist buses, a canal with occasional boats, and ongoing road works.  Then the next day we got to go on the big train.

Hayden and I didn't mind looking out the window either.  It was pretty exciting to be back in Europe again, and to be in the land of snow-topped mountains, beautiful green grassy hillsides, and the creamiest milk I've ever tasted.

But I still don't know if the Starbucks staff were having a little joke with Hayden's order.

speech

So our little chap Timmy has been a bit slow to start talking. It's something which is actually pretty common with boys, and nothing at all to worry about - except if you're a champion worrier like me.  Which is just preamble to explain the complete and utter flooding of joy and relief I feel when, barrelling down a country highway at 110km/hr, I hear the following whole sentence uttered from the back seat: "Timmy sneeze! Nose...booger...fall down." Yep.  He sneezed, and a booger flew out his nose.  And now I know.

morning snail arrangement

These days everything Tim touches gets formed into a line or, as I'm sure he thinks of it, a 'train' (even the snails we find in the front garden in the morning after we wave Daddy off to work).

s l e e p

After two-and-a-bit years living on tenterhooks regarding Tim's daytime naps, I've finally reached a level of complacency that allows me to actually enter his bedroom and take a quick snap of him in repose.  I wasn't even that worried that the noise of the camera shutter would startle him awake.

It's been a long two years in that regard.  Two years of work and worry that, I feel, the owners of well-sleeping children will just never understand.  I tell myself that if Tim had been a good sleeper, then I would have found something else, some other issue - with his development, say, or his hair - that I could tie myself into knots about.  But in my heart, I don't feel that's true.  If you're not getting enough sleep, then everything's hard.

play ground

This has been the summer of playgrounds.  We've found that Tim naps better, and sleeps better and is generally much happier with not one but at least TWO visits to the playground each day.  We built our summer days around it - especially on the really hot days, when we would head out to the slides and swings as early as possible (6:30am? 7am?) to get in a good play before the day got too hot.

Now that the weather is starting to cool, we're finding a new rhythm with lots of lovely crafty play inside.  But I didn't want to forget our summer days in the playground.

summer into autumn

Reminding myself that this blog is not just about Timmy - it's also about me.  I feel too shy to put up a full self-portrait, but was inspired to show this little shot of the sleeves hanging in my wardrobe.

Seasons are changing around here and the sleeves, while still light, are definitely getting longer.